Shanni Crossing: 2018 KublaCup Winner

Card draw simulator
Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Lanni Crossing - Treachery of Qarth 2018 - 2nd Place 2 0 0 1.0
Red Deck Wins(?) 5th Place Brawl 2018 (46p) 9 5 4 1.0

SoCalSandSnake 399

Background: This is the deck that won the KublaCup at KublaCon 2018. It was a pretty competitive field, with a few community celebrities and a handful of World Champions sprinkled throughout. There was a modified Restricted List, so nobody was able to really play Combo. This deck would have eaten Combo alive anyways. A week before the tourney, I went down to San Diego to get some reps in with a Stark Deck I'd seen preform well. While there, Chris Schoenthal used Kevin Shannon's Lanni Crossing deck to absolutely demolish me. I was in love. Red cards? They go the fastest! So, the night before the KublaCup tourney, I found Kevin and Chris plotting and scheming, debating between Greyjoy or Targaryen decks to play in the joust. Since neither of them were looking at Lannister, and Kevin's deck was already built, I asked to borrow his. So, all credit goes to Kevin Shannon for building this monster.

Deck Details: You should really only need to play 4 plots. Almost always, lead with Trading with the Pentoshi. Get board presence early with a monster character or two, and force your opponent to reset early. If you think your opponent runs Summer Harvest or Naval Superiority, then lead with Heads on Spikes and then use Trading with the Pentoshi the second turn. Tyrion's Chain is the MVP of this deck, as 4 triggers of Heads on Spikes with Forced March followup is really not something most decks can deal with. The deck struggles with power challenges, so often it was a throwaway first-challenge with Grand Maester Pycelle or Shae to force the opponent to kneel a larger character in defense.

Tourney Report: After a gruelling 6 rounds of Swiss, I was 4-2, having lost to a vicious Martell/Wolf and a Tyrell/Rains race. There were only three Lannister players in the field, so of course I had to play against one in the "win and in" playoff. Matt Thornton played well, but forgot Treachery is a thing. There could be only one Lannister!

Top 16 vs Ryan "The GreatJones" Jones, Martell/Kraken (recorded) Ryan's deck was very strange. I knew it was a Varys deck, but I also had an outstanding opening hand. I played Trading with the Pentoshi, marshalled everything, and forced him to spend his limited economy on only Varys. Almost every card in his deck just discards my hand, so I knew I had to keep attacking. He Varys'd twice this game, but I kept the pressure up, and with I Never Bet Against My Family into Cersei Lannister (LoCR), the game was pretty much over. Lucas recorded this game, and it'll be up on Youtube with his awful commentary soon.

Top 8 vs Nick "Power Icons are Good" Hansen, Baratheon Wars This was the hardest matchup of the day, by a lot. I got extremely lucky by sniping Stannis's Cavalry with an opening of Heads on Spikes. That was the only character in his hand even after the Draw Phase. Without that free turn, no way I could have won. Tywin Lannister (Core) came out early, but so did Dragonstone Castle, so he was just two gold each turn. He won dominance every turn and drew two cards from The Red Keep, so I knew time was short. I was stuck at 10 power, but then Nick held back two cards after marshalling. I attacked with Tyrion Lannister (Core), stealthing his only intrigue icon, played Tyrion's Chain with Heads on Spikes succesfully, triggered Cersei Lannister (LoCR), got the unopposed power, and triggered Cersei Lannister (LoCR) after intrigue claim for the win.

Top 4 vs Kevin "The Final Boss" Shannon, Targaryen Wars I knew this would be the last challenge of the day. Respect to Deatrick and Khalejandrogo, but Kevin is on a different level. I was able to get out Cersei Lannister (LoCR) duped and Tyrion Lannister (Core) turn one against his duped Plaza of Pride. I made him burn poor Tyrion, leaving Cersei free to do as she wished. I thought I was being cute with Ghosts of Harrenhal to get back Tyrion, but it's Kevin's deck, so he countered with Blood of the Dragon to burn away Podrick Payne before the plot could trigger. Unfortunately, he didn't draw any characters for two turns. I had the Treachery for his Flea Bottom in the final turn, and the game was over. At least Kevin's cards went on to win glory without him.

Finals vs John "Wait this isn't a CCG anymore?" Deatrick, Greyjoy Rains (recorded) This was the most ideal matchup possible for Lannister Crossing. Play Trading with the Pentoshi, flood the board, get too much power for him not to Valar Morghulis, then Heads on Spikes, into Forced March, into Heads on Spikes. Game over. Congrats to JD for performing so well and making it to the finals! Enjoy the Kubla pin, buddy!

Shameless plug for KublaCon: This is my favorite convention I go to every year! It is a celebration of gaming, fun, and friendship! The tournament this year was run very well by Lucas Sydlaske, and should be the metric FFG uses for all their Organized Play tourneys in the future. It's held in the same location every year on Memorial Day, and is certainly a worthwhile experience!

12 comments

imrahil327 129

Great run Barber! Congrats on being a two-time cup winner!

footlong 200

Congrats!

Polli85 328

Two questions:

  • Is 3x Pycelle necessary for the draw? Otherwise 3x Shae could be better.
  • Why just 2x Casterly Rock? Isn't CR very crucial for Crossing as it gives you much more flexibility in your challenges?

Thanks for your answers!

SpiriT 179

Agree with @Polli85, Shae seems like a stronger choice. Anything we are missing?

As a crossing deck, why do you recommend to dump a big board turn one? Why not go Spikes > Spikes > Dohaeris for example?

Also interesting tech with ghosts. Is that for Targ matchup?

SoCalSandSnake 399

On the Pycelle vs Shae debate, I think that Shae is definitely better, if you have spare gold with Casterly Rock, or Tyrion. The multiple challenges aspect she brings is phenomenal, and she's was critical in the Baratheon matchup.

However, with no extra gold, no Casterly Rock, and no Tyrion, the notorious GMP is much preferred. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, I suppose. He's really important for the First Challenge at -1 str, as he forces the opponent to block with a bigger character, leaving the other challenges open to attack.

Ghosts is in the plot deck because you really only need 4-5 plots to get the job done. Using a jumper event to bring in a 7-coster, letting it die to claim, then hopping it back in is an enormous tempo swing, and might be enough to close with.

Were I to change anything about the plots, I'd dump Counting Coppers for You Win Or You Die.

argento 649

Same deck made king of swiss at world championship, nimer's one. Still strong, but not really a new one. Congrats for playing it to the win anyway.

Ebrey 157

@argento Nobody's claiming that Kevin or John invented Lanni Crossing :). There's plenty of fun new stuff in this that's different than Nico's World's list, like Forced March with Tyrion's Chain.

sking2 27

I took this thing to the Atlanta, Georgia regional yesterday and holy cow its fast!

I lost my first round to James Booker in the mirror match, but then went 3-0 needing one more win to make the cut where I ran into Todd Moyer and his GJ/Rose deck ( which I've played around with some before). This was a really good game where he used Tris to limit what I could bounce into play, and I never saw Cersei. All that and it was a 15-13 final tally.

I did make some changes that I thought were huge for me all day.

-1 Grand Maester Pycelle -1 Bodyguard

+1 Gates of the Moon +3 The Hand's Judgment

Getting gates out early really allowed me to marshal some bigger guys instead of relying on jumping them in.

THe real hero here was The Hand's Judgment. It came in clutch numerous times over the course of the day preventing opponents from using Seen In Flames, having it on hand for Doran's Game.

Round 1: L - Lanni Crossing Round 2: W - Tyrell/HRD Bitterbridge. This one was 15-2 Round 3: W- Martell/WTC Round 4: W - Bara/Rose My good friend Jake Hamric Round 5: L - 13-15 GJ/Rose against Todd from DC meta.

Again, really enjoyed piloting this thing and I think I said "Red cards go fast!!!" 15-20 times yesterday!

doobleg 15

"The deck struggles with power challenges" seems to contradict the inclusion of Superior Claim. Did you this event get played much? :)

Amoon 1

Great tweaks to the deck and personally so happy to see Tyrion's Chain return with a vengeance! Congratulations on your stellar performance.

sking2 27

@doobleg I personally only used it once throughout 5 games, and it happened to be a clutch piece at that turn. That said, I found that I rotated my important challenge based on opponent so while I wouldn’t say the deck “struggles” with power challenges, it was usually my least important challenge.

sking2 27

I also swapped out coppers for You Win Or You Die and it was almost always my closer. It’s definitely the better choice.